1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for inactivating viruses having lipid-containing capsids, such as the virus responsible for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in humans.
2. Description of the Background Art
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has recently become a significant public health threat, although the disease was a little known condition only a few years ago.
AIDS is believed to be transmitted through contact with infected body fluids,, and the disease has rapidly spread among promiscuous homosexuals, intravenous drug abusers and hemophiliacs dependent upon clotting factor VIII.
In its fully developed form, AIDS is a disease characterized by a profound loss of immune T-cell function. T-cells are lymphocytes that are critical for the body's immune response to infection. The loss of immune T-cell function results in a spectrum of opportunistic infectious disease complications, including Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, Herpes simplex, cytomegalovirus, candidiasis, cryptosporidosis, and the like.
Though most patients die from the infectious complication of AIDS, a subset develop a highly malignant tumor called Kaposi's Sarcoma, for which there is currently no effective form of treatment.
A significant breakthrough in AIDS research occurred in 1983-1984, when two groups independently isolated and identified a virus which is believed to be the causative agent of AIDS. A full description of the AIDS virus discovery is provided in Sattaur, O., New Scientist, Feb. 7, 1985, p. 3. A group in France, led by Luc Montaignier, first described a retrovirus Lymphoadenopathy Associated Virus (LAV) in May, 1983. A year later, an American group led by Robert Gallo described a virus isolated from AIDS patients that was ostensibly related to a class of viruses known as Human T-cell Leukemia Viruses (HTLV's), and named the virus HTLV-III. Determination of the complete nucleotide sequences of the genomes of the HTLV-III virus and the LAV virus demonstrated that they are variants of the same virus.
The AIDS virus (HTLV-III, LAV) is a member of a class of viruses known as "retroviruses", so-called because they possess an enzyme called reverse transcriptase that uses the viral RNA as a template for the synthesis of a complementary DNA.
The AIDS virus (HTLV-III, LAV) has been shown to be the causative agent of AIDS, and has been found to cause a similar disease in chimpanzees (see, e.g., Alter et al., Science, 226:549 (1984)).
Although a great deal of effort has recently been directed towards discovering an effective treatment for AIDS, no safe effective treatment has heretofore been described. There thus remains an urgent need for a method for inactivating the AIDS virus and for the treatment of AIDS.